Our Team

Doug Burkhalter

Director / CEO

As a founding partner of Emerald Fields™, one of Colorado’s most respected and fastest growing recreational cannabis brands, Doug is a veteran of running businesses in highly regulated industries and publicly traded companies. For almost a quarter century and over his career, Doug led marketing, branding and operations for some of the nations most respected gaming companies.

As a key licensed employee, and a casino industry veteran, Doug had a ring side seat for the expansion of the riverboat gaming industry and sees the recreational cannabis industry as running on a parallel trajectory.

Doug’s operations acumen and accountability make Emerald Fields one of the most respected recreational cannabis companies and a brand that is on the rise industry wide.

Jim Gulbrandsen

Director / Chief Strategy Officer

Another veteran of the casino industry, Jim has experience building businesses with rapid growth and helped fund and advise for some of the biggest names in gaming including Caesars Entertainment, and Argosy Gaming Company. Jim’s corporate development and growth strategies led him to Cripple Creek CO where he developed and owned his own casino. Jim’s knowledge for growth is proven and he brings over 50 years of both hands on and board of directors experience in growing enterprise level businesses.

Charles T. Houghton, ESQ

Corporate Counsel

Charles T. Houghton is the founder and owner of Charles T. Houghton, P.C., a law firm dedicated to providing business, compliance, licensing and regulatory advice to the marijuana industry. In 2010 Charles sat on the City of Colorado Springs Medical Marijuana Task Force to help the City of Colorado Springs, the State of Colorado’s second largest metropolitan area, develop its regulatory framework and ordinances. He was reappointed and sat on the latest City of Colorado Medical Marijuana Task Force in 2016.

He has been instrumental in establishing regulatory schemes in various cities and counties. He represents a number of Marijuana Businesses and acts as a consultant to those entering the business in California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Illinois, Florida, Canada and other states and countries with some form of marijuana laws. He is a much sought after and frequent speaker and lecturer on patient rights, and the business and regulatory aspects of the marijuana industry.

Jan Talamo

Chief Creative Officer / Head of Brand Strategies

Jan and has spent 30 years in the marketing business building brands and strategies for clients in both the CPG, Healthcare, Technology, Gaming & Hospitality, and entertainment industries.

Jan has served as Chief Creative Officer and Partner for three companies over his career and is most noted for his quick assessment and the omni channel integration of marketing communications. In 2001, Jan helped launch a brand licensing deal for Margaritaville which was the precursor of today’s billion dollar lifestyle brand. Jan directs and produces broadcast campaigns, is a package design expert, and leads a creative collaborative of over 50 people across every marketing channel including digital.

Jan is also a founding stakeholder of a soon to be public company and groundbreaking retail SaaS innovation that is redefining the path to purchase.

Michael Thompson

Vice President / Product Development

Michael Thompson has designed, built, consulted on and operated cultivation and production facilities in Colorado, New Jersey, Florida, Washington, Michigan, Oregon and Massachusetts and has a complete understanding of all aspects of cannabis cultivation and product manufacturing.

A former biomedical scientist in training, Thompson changed career paths in 2012 when he left graduate school and moved to Colorado with the intention of working in the Cannabis Industry. Michael has been selected to serve on the Massachusetts Cannabis Energy Roundtable, where he works on behalf of stakeholders to constructively influence and make recommendations to the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission regarding reasonable energy regulation and compliance.

Jim Bent

Vice President / Retail Operations

James Bent currently oversees retail operations at Emerald Fields. During his 5 years in Medical Marijuana and 4 years in the Recreational Marijuana industry, James has become an expert in compliance, operations, quality customer service and product knowledge.

In 2009, he established one of the one of the three Medical Marijuana dispensaries in Colorado, Patients Choice of Colorado, LLC. Patients Choice of Colorado’s vision was to create a customized and caring patient experience based on their medical needs.